How to fix Britain’s migrant crisis – quickly

Conventional wisdom has it that Britain faces an awkward dilemma on legal immigration: either we cut migrant numbers to keep faith with voters (more than 60 per cent of whom say immigration has been too high over the last decade), or we keep the economy growing by allowing net migration to continue at levels well beyond anything the country has ever seen. But this is a false dichotomy. The government is not facing a choice of either/or. 

Let’s start with a bit of historical perspective. For centuries, Britain was a country of net emigration, not immigration. Annual net migration only exceeded 100,000 for the first time in 1998. In fact, in the 25 years up to the election of Tony Blair in 1997, cumulative net migration totalled just 68,000. Over the next 25 years, 1998-2022, it totalled at least 5.9